J C Thompson
Biographic Data
| ID | 43574 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J C Thompson |
| GIVEN NAMES | J C |
| FAMILY NAME | Thompson |
| SIGNATURE | THOMPSON J C |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Queensland |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1627-4949 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 616 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 43 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Hey, I Need Help”: Student-Survivor Perceptions of Engagement With Title IX
Interpersonal violence on college campuses disrupts academic experiences and impacts outcomes for students. This study sought to understand the experiences of students in the United States engaging with Title IX offices, within the context of additional state mandates. Interviews were conducted with 24 students and analyzed through inductive content analysis. Students described negative impacts such as challenges with the organizational processes…
Taphonomic considerations for identifying ochre residues on ostrich eggshell
Short-distance hunting strategies of Late Quaternary foragers in the miombo woodlands of Malawi
A record of forager hunting since the Last Glacial Maximum in Malawi. • Mostly small and medium prey not far from the site. • Focus on the procurement of bone marrow. • Evidence suggests a home-range system with limited mobility. The Economic Defendability Model posits that foragers exploiting dense and predictable resources should establish defended territories, while foragers exploiting unpredictable resources manage shortfall risk by ranging a…
Palaeoenvironmental data indicate late quaternary anthropogenic impacts on vegetation and landscapes in Mzimba, northern Malawi
Landscapes are formed by long-term interactions between the underlying geology and climatic, edaphic and biotic factors, including human activity. The Kasitu Valley in the Mzimba District of northern Malawi includes the Kasitu River and its adjacent floodplains and uplands, and it has been a location of sustained human occupation since at least 16 thousand years ago (ka) based on archaeological excavations from rockshelters. We trace the changing…
The Zooarchaeology of Pleistocene Africa
European Trade in Malawi: The Glass Bead Evidence
Small animal use by Neanderthals
The emergence and intensification of early hunter‐gatherer niche construction
Hunter‐gatherers, especially Pleistocene examples, are not well‐represented in archeological studies of niche construction. However, as the role of humans in shaping environments over long time scales becomes increasingly apparent, it is critical to develop archeological proxies and testable hypotheses about early hunter‐gatherer impacts. Modern foragers engage in niche constructive behaviors aimed at maintaining or increasing the productivity of…
Approaches to land snail shell bead manufacture in the Early Holocene of Malawi
Shell disc beads are important archeological indicators of social communication and exchange networks. There has been substantial research on ostrich eggshell (OES) beads, but little is known about the manufacture or chronology of similar beads from land snail shells (LSS). LSS beads are associated with Holocene hunter-gatherers in Africa, though direct dates are limited to the Iron Age, and there are no images or descriptions of the manufacturin…
Taphonomy in Human Evolution
Earliest known Oldowan artifacts at >2.58 Ma from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia, highlight early technological diversity
Significance Humans are distinguished from all other primates by their reliance on tool use. When this uniquely human feature began is debated. Evidence of tool use in human ancestors now extends almost 3.3 Ma and becomes prevalent only after 2.6 Ma with the Oldowan. Here, we report a new Oldowan locality (BD 1) that dates prior to 2.6 Ma. These earliest Oldowan tools are distinctive from the 3.3 Ma assemblage and from materials that modern nonhu…
Faunal Analysis in African Archaeology
Faunal analysis (or zooarchaeology) in African archaeology is the identification, analysis, and interpretation of the remains of animal bones recovered from archaeological sites in Africa. Its methods and theoretical underpinnings derive from archaeology, paleontology, biology, and geochemistry, and they extend across all faunal categories. Much of the work in African faunal analysis concerns large-bodied mammalian taxa, but the approach encompas…
Late Middle Stone Age Behavior and Environments at Chaminade I (Karonga, Malawi)
Origins of the Human Predatory Pattern: The Transition to Large-Animal Exploitation by Early Hominins
The habitual consumption of large-animal resources (e.g., similar sized or larger than the consumer) separates human and nonhuman primate behavior. Flaked stone tool use, another important hominin behavior, is often portrayed as being functionally related to this by the necessity of a sharp edge for cutting animal tissue. However, most research on both issues emphasizes sites that postdate ca. 2.0 million years ago. This paper critically examines…
Low-Survival Skeletal Elements Track Attrition, Not Carcass Transport Behavior in Quaternary Large Mammal Assemblages
The origins and early elaboration of projectile technology
The ability of Homo sapiens to kill prey at a distance is arguably one of the catalysts for our current ecological dominance. Many researchers have suggested its origins lie in the African Middle Stone Age or the European Middle Palaeolithic (∼300‐30 thousand years ago), but the perishable components of armatures rarely preserve. Most research on this subject therefore emphasises analysis of armature tip size, shape, and diagnostic impacts or res…
Identifying the accumulator: Making the most of bone surface modification data
Differentiating between cutting actions on bone using 3D geometric morphometrics and Bayesian analyses with implications to human evolution
Studies of bone surface modifications (BSMs) such as cut marks are crucial to our understanding of human and earlier hominin subsistence behavior. Over the last several decades, however, BSM identification has remained contentious, particularly in terms of identifying the earliest instances of hominin butchery; there has been a lack of consensus over how to identify or differentiate marks made by human and non-human actors and varying effectors. …
The trajectory of bone surface modification studies in paleoanthropology and a new Bayesian solution to the identification controversy
Approaches to Middle Stone Age landscape archaeology in tropical Africa
The Southern Montane Forest-Grassland mosaic ecosystem in the humid subtropics southern Rift Valley of Africa comprised the environmental context for a large area in which modern human evolution and dispersal occurred. Variable climatic conditions during the Late Pleistocene have ranged between humid and hyperarid, changing the character of the ecosystem and transforming it at different points in time into a barrier, a refuge, and a corridor betw…
Ochre fingerprints: Distinguishing among M alawian mineral pigment sources with H omogenized O chre C hip LA–ICPMS
In this study, we compared the effectiveness of instrumental neutron activation analysis ( INAA ) of bulk ochre to laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry of homogenized ochre chips ( HOC LA–ICPMS ) at distinguishing among three ochre sources in northern M alawi. Both techniques upheld the P rovenance P ostulate; however, HOC LA–ICPMS required less sample material than INAA and facilitated fast, inexpensive replicate observati…
Taphonomy of fossils from the hominin-bearing deposits at Dikika, Ethiopia
Catchment Survey in the Karonga District: A Landscape-Scale Analysis of Provisioning and Core Reduction Strategies During the Middle Stone Age of Northern Malawi
Renewed Geoarchaeological Investigations of Mwanganda's Village (Elephant Butchery Site), Karonga, Malawi
The site of Mwanganda's Village, located along a paleochannel in northern Malawi, is one of only a few sites that have characterized the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Malawi for decades (Clark & Haynes, ; Clark et al., ; Kaufulu, ). The Malawi Earlier‐Middle Stone Age Project has re‐examined the site using new mapping and chronometric tools in order to reinterpret the site's significance within the context of current debates surrounding human origins…
Experimental projectile impact marks on bone: Implications for identifying the origins of projectile technology
Taphonomic analysis of the Middle Stone Age faunal assemblage from Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, Western Cape, South Africa
Origins of the Human Predatory Pattern: The Transition to Large-Animal Exploitation by Early Hominins
The habitual consumption of large-animal resources (e.g., similar sized or larger than the consumer) separates human and nonhuman primate behavior. Flaked stone tool use, another important hominin behavior, is often portrayed as being functionally related to this by the necessity of a sharp edge for cutting animal tissue. However, most research on both issues emphasizes sites that postdate ca. 2.0 million years ago. This paper critically examines…
Taphonomic analysis of the Middle Stone Age larger mammal faunal assemblage from Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa
An experimental investigation of cut mark production and stone tool attrition
Differentiating between cutting actions on bone using 3D geometric morphometrics and Bayesian analyses with implications to human evolution
Studies of bone surface modifications (BSMs) such as cut marks are crucial to our understanding of human and earlier hominin subsistence behavior. Over the last several decades, however, BSM identification has remained contentious, particularly in terms of identifying the earliest instances of hominin butchery; there has been a lack of consensus over how to identify or differentiate marks made by human and non-human actors and varying effectors. …
Tortoise taphonomy and tortoise butchery patterns at Blombos Cave, South Africa
Taphonomy of fossils from the hominin-bearing deposits at Dikika, Ethiopia
The trajectory of bone surface modification studies in paleoanthropology and a new Bayesian solution to the identification controversy
On bad terms: Problems and solutions within zooarchaeological bone surface modification studies
The identification of butchery marks in the zooarchaeological record has consistently been debated. Much experimental work has been done to understand the causal agents behind some bone surface modifications, but recent controversies show that there is still no consensus. Terminology is not consistent between researchers, and there is ambiguity in how characteristics of marks are described and interpreted. There is also a lack of understanding of…
Experimental projectile impact marks on bone: Implications for identifying the origins of projectile technology
Approaches to Middle Stone Age landscape archaeology in tropical Africa
The Southern Montane Forest-Grassland mosaic ecosystem in the humid subtropics southern Rift Valley of Africa comprised the environmental context for a large area in which modern human evolution and dispersal occurred. Variable climatic conditions during the Late Pleistocene have ranged between humid and hyperarid, changing the character of the ecosystem and transforming it at different points in time into a barrier, a refuge, and a corridor betw…
Renewed Geoarchaeological Investigations of Mwanganda's Village (Elephant Butchery Site), Karonga, Malawi
The site of Mwanganda's Village, located along a paleochannel in northern Malawi, is one of only a few sites that have characterized the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Malawi for decades (Clark & Haynes, ; Clark et al., ; Kaufulu, ). The Malawi Earlier‐Middle Stone Age Project has re‐examined the site using new mapping and chronometric tools in order to reinterpret the site's significance within the context of current debates surrounding human origins…
Zooarchaeological tests for modern human behaviour at Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, southwestern Cape, South Africa
Zooarchaeological tests for modern human behaviour at Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, southwestern Cape, South Africa." Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 44(3), p. 358
Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour
Identifying the accumulator: Making the most of bone surface modification data
Approaches to land snail shell bead manufacture in the Early Holocene of Malawi
Shell disc beads are important archeological indicators of social communication and exchange networks. There has been substantial research on ostrich eggshell (OES) beads, but little is known about the manufacture or chronology of similar beads from land snail shells (LSS). LSS beads are associated with Holocene hunter-gatherers in Africa, though direct dates are limited to the Iron Age, and there are no images or descriptions of the manufacturin…
Renewed investigations into the Middle Stone Age of northern Malawi
Catchment Survey in the Karonga District: A Landscape-Scale Analysis of Provisioning and Core Reduction Strategies During the Middle Stone Age of Northern Malawi
Late Middle Stone Age Behavior and Environments at Chaminade I (Karonga, Malawi)
Using GIS to Integrate Old and New Archaeological Data from Stone Age Deposits in Karonga, Malawi
The Karonga District of northern Malawi has an extensive Stone Age archaeological record, primarily represented by stone artefacts that occur in both superficial and buried contexts. Work conducted in the 1960s provided initial documentation of this record. Some of this was presented in summary form in a small number of publications. However, most data were restricted to unpublished field notes, maps, and other static or largely inaccessible form…
Ochre fingerprints: Distinguishing among M alawian mineral pigment sources with H omogenized O chre C hip LA–ICPMS
In this study, we compared the effectiveness of instrumental neutron activation analysis ( INAA ) of bulk ochre to laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry of homogenized ochre chips ( HOC LA–ICPMS ) at distinguishing among three ochre sources in northern M alawi. Both techniques upheld the P rovenance P ostulate; however, HOC LA–ICPMS required less sample material than INAA and facilitated fast, inexpensive replicate observati…
Taphonomic Analysis of the Mammalian Fauna from Sandia Cave, New Mexico, and the 'Sandia Man' Controversy
Sandia Cave in New Mexico was excavated in the late 1930s by Frank Hibben, who described a unique type of chipped stone artifact-the 'Sandia point'-in association with a faunal assemblage that included extinct Pleistocene species. The site was interpreted as a late Pleistocene Paleoindian hunting station, making it the earliest human occupation known in America at the time. Despite the pivotal role the faunal assemblage has played in interpretati…
Short-distance hunting strategies of Late Quaternary foragers in the miombo woodlands of Malawi
A record of forager hunting since the Last Glacial Maximum in Malawi. • Mostly small and medium prey not far from the site. • Focus on the procurement of bone marrow. • Evidence suggests a home-range system with limited mobility. The Economic Defendability Model posits that foragers exploiting dense and predictable resources should establish defended territories, while foragers exploiting unpredictable resources manage shortfall risk by ranging a…
European Trade in Malawi: The Glass Bead Evidence
Crocodile ecology and the taphonomy of early Australasian sites
Humans and human ancestors have exploited wetland resources for at least two million years. The most significant predators in these landscapes are crocodiles, which leads to two potential taphonomic problems: 1) human-accumulated bones may become intermingled with crocodile-modified bones; and 2) hominins themselves may have been victims of crocodiles. Davidson and Solomon (1990) significantly contributed to this literature through theirsuggestio…
Bookshelf
RELATIONS AFTER THE RAJ The Erosion of a Relationship: India and Britain since 1960. MICHAEL LIPTON and JOHN FIRN. For the Royal Institute of International Relations. Oxford University Press. 1975. £13.00. AN AMERICAN'S ASIA Asia and the Road Ahead. ROBERT A. SCALAPINO. University of California Press. $10.95. ARCTIC INTERESTS The Arctic in Question. Edited by E. J. DOSMAN. Oxford University Press. 206 pp. KEEPING TABS ON THE MONEY The Power of th…
Ideas and the American Enlightenment
The Economics of Wage Controls
The Pathetic Is Political: The Educational Implications of Heroinism
When I was in high school I made an important literary discovery: the interesting women always died. By the time I was in university I had figured out that they were interesting because they died. When I got to graduate school I decided to investigate these deaths. I have become a suspicious critic, refusing to accept conventional explanations and looking always for clues, for other possibilities within texts. (Indeed, I discovered that women in …
Research on the origins of modern humans continues to dominate paleoanthropology
An experimental investigation of cut mark production and stone tool attrition
Taphonomic Analysis of the Mammalian Fauna from Sandia Cave, New Mexico, and the 'Sandia Man' Controversy
Sandia Cave in New Mexico was excavated in the late 1930s by Frank Hibben, who described a unique type of chipped stone artifact-the 'Sandia point'-in association with a faunal assemblage that included extinct Pleistocene species. The site was interpreted as a late Pleistocene Paleoindian hunting station, making it the earliest human occupation known in America at the time. Despite the pivotal role the faunal assemblage has played in interpretati…
Zooarchaeological tests for modern human behaviour at Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, southwestern Cape, South Africa
Zooarchaeological tests for modern human behaviour at Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, southwestern Cape, South Africa." Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 44(3), p. 358
Taphonomic analysis of the Middle Stone Age faunal assemblage from Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, Western Cape, South Africa
Crocodile ecology and the taphonomy of early Australasian sites
Humans and human ancestors have exploited wetland resources for at least two million years. The most significant predators in these landscapes are crocodiles, which leads to two potential taphonomic problems: 1) human-accumulated bones may become intermingled with crocodile-modified bones; and 2) hominins themselves may have been victims of crocodiles. Davidson and Solomon (1990) significantly contributed to this literature through theirsuggestio…
Renewed investigations into the Middle Stone Age of northern Malawi
Taphonomic analysis of the Middle Stone Age larger mammal faunal assemblage from Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa
Radiocarbon Dating the Human Occupation at Sandia Cave, New Mexico
Sandia Cave generated much interest when in the 1940s extinct Pleistocene megafauna were reported in association with what appeared to be a pre-Folsom Paleoindian component. By the 1950s a series of controversies regarding the stratigraphy and dating began to push the site into obscurity. The human occupation at the site has never been directly dated beyond 2250 ± 50 BP, and nonartifactual associated bone will not provide reliable age estimates b…
Central Auditory System, Anatomy
Using GIS to Integrate Old and New Archaeological Data from Stone Age Deposits in Karonga, Malawi
The Karonga District of northern Malawi has an extensive Stone Age archaeological record, primarily represented by stone artefacts that occur in both superficial and buried contexts. Work conducted in the 1960s provided initial documentation of this record. Some of this was presented in summary form in a small number of publications. However, most data were restricted to unpublished field notes, maps, and other static or largely inaccessible form…
Tortoise taphonomy and tortoise butchery patterns at Blombos Cave, South Africa
Catchment Survey in the Karonga District: A Landscape-Scale Analysis of Provisioning and Core Reduction Strategies During the Middle Stone Age of Northern Malawi
Renewed Geoarchaeological Investigations of Mwanganda's Village (Elephant Butchery Site), Karonga, Malawi
The site of Mwanganda's Village, located along a paleochannel in northern Malawi, is one of only a few sites that have characterized the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Malawi for decades (Clark & Haynes, ; Clark et al., ; Kaufulu, ). The Malawi Earlier‐Middle Stone Age Project has re‐examined the site using new mapping and chronometric tools in order to reinterpret the site's significance within the context of current debates surrounding human origins…
Experimental projectile impact marks on bone: Implications for identifying the origins of projectile technology
On bad terms: Problems and solutions within zooarchaeological bone surface modification studies
The identification of butchery marks in the zooarchaeological record has consistently been debated. Much experimental work has been done to understand the causal agents behind some bone surface modifications, but recent controversies show that there is still no consensus. Terminology is not consistent between researchers, and there is ambiguity in how characteristics of marks are described and interpreted. There is also a lack of understanding of…
Nutritional values of tortoises relative to ungulates from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for foraging and social behaviour
Ochre fingerprints: Distinguishing among M alawian mineral pigment sources with H omogenized O chre C hip LA–ICPMS
In this study, we compared the effectiveness of instrumental neutron activation analysis ( INAA ) of bulk ochre to laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry of homogenized ochre chips ( HOC LA–ICPMS ) at distinguishing among three ochre sources in northern M alawi. Both techniques upheld the P rovenance P ostulate; however, HOC LA–ICPMS required less sample material than INAA and facilitated fast, inexpensive replicate observati…
Taphonomy of fossils from the hominin-bearing deposits at Dikika, Ethiopia
Approaches to Middle Stone Age landscape archaeology in tropical Africa
The Southern Montane Forest-Grassland mosaic ecosystem in the humid subtropics southern Rift Valley of Africa comprised the environmental context for a large area in which modern human evolution and dispersal occurred. Variable climatic conditions during the Late Pleistocene have ranged between humid and hyperarid, changing the character of the ecosystem and transforming it at different points in time into a barrier, a refuge, and a corridor betw…
Identifying the accumulator: Making the most of bone surface modification data
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (33 works) · Geography (32 works) · Archaeology (29 works) · Biology (24 works) · Ecology (21 works) · Geology (21 works) · Paleontology (19 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (17 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (17 works) · Taphonomy (15 works)